Topics Religion

Question What theistic philosophical response can there be to evil and suffering, acknowledging original sin, even from a kierkegaardian viewpoint, to what does it relate to the meaning, purpose and endurable with some meaning and joy? (ps sorry for the horrible syntax) basically philosophical statements and ideas relating to meaningful living, not just suffering and illusion, for a religious mind/person. Thank you.

Accepted:
October 17, 2013

Comments

Your question(s) / challenge(s) is/ are important and well put (no need to apologize for syntax!). Along with many (but by no means all) philosophers, I agree with what I think you are suggesting or open to in your second to last sentence: questions about the meaning and value of life involve more than calculating the amount of suffering and illusion. Indeed, I suggest that the concerns you address have a bearing on some rising cultural movements. Those of us who are theists affirm the overall goodness of there being a world such as ours (or at least we affirm the goodness of [a] God who permits evils that exist that will be overcome and redeemed by God's omnipotent love.) But a growing (though still small) group of philosophers have argued for a highly pessimistic view of life. Sometime inspired by Schopenhauer, these philosophers (and public intellectuals) have argued that it would be good if the human species ceased to be. Some have even gone further in concluding that it good for all sentient life to cease to be. I suggest that this radical conclusion does bring us to the logical (or at least natural) conclusion that those who press the case against theism face their own problem of evil: Would it truly be better if our cosmos to not exist rather than exist? Insofar as we find meaning and purpose in life that go beyond mathematically comparing degrees of suffering, this chapter invites us to think of 'the problem of evil' from a broader, important point of view